Making an entrance is a thing isn’t it, so when we bought the forever house Easter Shian, I knew the entranceway needed some TLC. It's an off yellow and pale green clash on the panelling, the poor floor tiles of blue-grey, the mismatch of décor and ultimately it wasn’t us.

Walking into a house for me, anyway, is a sneak into the soul of the people, their story, their personalities, like likes and not like, their natural default messy, untidy, ordered, unstructured or structured, to set then it feels unwelcome, too unset and it feels well unwelcome. A delicate balance on such a (usually) small and functional space. It has to do its job, be that storage of excess shoes, coats, be able to put on your shoes so seating, storage of keys, and those extras that accrue in life. The hallway entrance has a high footfall, the passage into your home, the area to congregate, post collect and pick up(well here in remote Scotland the postie just opens your door and pops in your post! Neighbours just drop by and do that old thing like knock and walk-in, this multifunctional space that displays your personality is one that can take some work.

Understanding my DIY style is quite slapdash (drives the husband a little mad at times!). My natural impatience is I can see what I want and then want it done immediately. I don’t strive for imperfection, and now I can fall back on the Japanese style of Wabi-Sabi, the style of imperfection= yeah me. Perfect so I can now even justify my “errors”, untidy and not finished to the most perfect standard. This might not be good enough for many, for me, working on budgets that constrict the luxury items I am sticking to unless you wanted to inspect. Plus I am going with the entrance is fast-moving, so you don’t hang around too much to see the minute detail of errors.

Next, choose the colour scheme. I am LOVING the dark colours right now, and not sure I will dislike them ever. Balance is essential, so making sure that we have some dark and light through the house will work. The house is an old, old farmhouse 1702 built, so its low ceiling small windows naturally create dark spaces. The hallway is an extension lean-to thing that isn’t that well-made and the entranceway (and attached utility are waterproof- the downstairs loo – now cloakroom and toilet is not it leaks a lot – next project more about that later).

Back to the colours- I wanted the two-tone look, and dark, so the only way was to lower the ceiling colour onto the walls, create a ¾ wall paint int the dark. We had the F&B Old colour eft Black Blue (they don’t do it anymore left) and thought I could use that – plus the flow into the kitchen the island is painted the same colour so lovely connection to the house colour flow too). I wanted the colours split so thought that placing a baton with pegs on would distinguish this and be practical for hanging “stuff” on. One of the house's themes is leather straps, so I am hanging pictures up with them, they are on the tweed wall in the sitting room, making them for the ottoman, another continuity through the house pegs for this too -hanging artwork. All the paint is what we had, the baton we had spare from making the library wall, the pegs I bought from Esty (superb quality get them here).

Before

When painting dark, you have to be patient. The moment always happens when you think the colour is wrong, the layers you have to paint, and it is not going to work, lots of thin coats and it does work out. Painting the slats was a pain, as you have to get into the sections in-between the slats, and my Wabi-Sabi excuse style means it’s not perfect here. I was going to paint the pegs yet we liked them raw and will get round to waxing them one day!

During

Styling- Making it about us

The styling is just that, didn’t buy anything new, spent time going around the house and finding bits that represent Dave and me.

1.     Books a necessity, I built a library for goodness sakes, books had to feature

2.     Artwork and we have the Giles Duley amazing photo signed and the little book pages (can’t remember where I bought them from sadly)

3.     Flowers, plants, wreath (from Lon Store local deli unique!) need to be present as we have now got lots of plants and they are about life, nature, living so need to be part of the hallway

4.     The Phrenology head is a nod to my passion for science and precisely all things neuroscience

5.     Covering up the floor is a huge Hessian Rug from Ikea, thankfully fits and the floor will be painted (eventually!)

6.     Seating necessity as the need to take off and put on walking boots, wellies etc. and the seats are from Homer Interiors (Aberfeldy and Edinburgh)

7.     The lighting is still a  ceiling light I don’t like so we used a TKMaxx bargain, and it’s a plug light so works perfectly here, and it's using a Wix Lightbulb so wifi and on a timer too

8.     Quartz is one I found on a recent hike here at easter Shian, fortunately, its everywhere and built into the house and barns too!

9.     The old telephone is an on old one we have had for years and travelled with us and never been plugged in (a BT line box is being fitted, so we always have a backup, WiFi and electrics go down a lot so having a landline is critical

10.  Basket is from Mallorca and had to be somewhere in this space- such happy memories from living there

11.  The Console, Credenza is from Mallorca too from Modelmontienda our fave interiors shop on the island

12.  And finally smells- another mini obsession, we have  Le Labo throughout the house you can have the labels written especially for you and ours say Halls-Evans Home. The new ones are labelled easter Shian for the up-and-coming AirBnB’s. Plus I have just ordered the Chase & Wonder large three wick to go in here too. I am looking for more local products for lovely smells, so I will keep hunting.

After

We love it, and the entrance is us, showing us as we are our foibles, quirks, and super practical. For us, it works.